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Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:15 am
by KattenPejst
I just discovered Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears and wanted share a great video clip with them perfoming "Truckin'", take a look at it at my blog:
http://swingjazzblues.blogspot.com/2007 ... uckin.html
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:46 am
by GemZombie
Very cool.
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:14 am
by Jonas
Yep, very good clip indeed. Nice rhythmical singing.
I wonder if there are any good cd's with her stuff. It's possible to get
"Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears" [Vintage #81] with Truckin' on it from Worlds Records.
Does anyone have it, is it good?
/Jonas
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:17 am
by kitkat
Hard to say, but I want, I want, I want.
Jonas, your link seems to have 14 tracks.
This one claims to have 24 tracks and the same cover art--on the other hand, it isn't available.
Update--Aha! It's 14 tracks
of the Melodears with 10 tracks of a male band fronted by Hutton on that album. So they probably are the same album.
Also, looks like
side players we should keep our eyes out for on other albums are:
Mardell Owen (trumpet)
Betty Sattley (t. sax)
Alyse Wells (several)
Betty Roudebush (piano)
Tight combo. They play very, very well together. I love this stuff and covet that album.
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:52 am
by Platypus
I have two albums:
Ina Ray Hutton and her Orchestra (male orchestra)
Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears
The second features her all-women band. The main problem is that most of the songs for the Melodears have a lot of hissing, so I would be hesitant to play them at a dance. "Wild Party" is one of the few that I have played at a dance.
There are two really good women in jazz CDs that are out of print, but awesome if you want to hear a slice of women in jazz history:
Forty Years of Women in Jazz (includes "Wild Party")
Jazz Women: A Feminist Retrospective
Here are the playlists from an NPR two show set on women in jazz. I relied on it quite a bit as I hunted down artists for Tina Davis's and my "women in jazz" Yehoodi show a few years ago. Note how many of the selections are from the "Forty Years of Women in Jazz" set of CDs:
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofile ... 2list.html
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofile ... 1list.html
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:23 pm
by kitkat
Platypus wrote:Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears
The second features her all-women band. The main problem is that most of the songs for the Melodears have a lot of hissing, so I would be hesitant to play them at a dance. "Wild Party" is one of the few that I have played at a dance.
Is this album, the one with the hissing, the album that Jonas linked to?
Platypus wrote:There are two really good women in jazz CDs that are out of print, but awesome if you want to hear a slice of women in jazz history:
Forty Years of Women in Jazz (includes "Wild Party")
Jazz Women: A Feminist Retrospective
What portion of the tracks on each would you say are good for spinning at a dance as they are? What portion would be good for spinning at a dance if only the quality were better?
Re: Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:32 pm
by Haydn
Love it

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:40 pm
by Haydn
Platypus wrote:The main problem is that most of the songs for the Melodears have a lot of hissing, so I would be hesitant to play them at a dance. "Wild Party" is one of the few that I have played at a dance.
Boo! Hiss!

. Yes, you can tell just from listening to the samples that there's too much background noise. I guess they would need careful 'audio restoration' to sound good enough to play at a dance ...
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sq ... jb7i23g7dr
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:27 pm
by texas-eddie
Awesome stuff, not only did she do everything, she did it well.
Jazzwomen
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:35 pm
by david
The only Hutton I own is from
Jazzwomen: Great Instrumental Gals that I found in France.
It's a fun compilation, but not much to dance to, and the sound quality varies a lot. But it has one of my favourites, Rose Murphy with "Rosetta", in a version that makes me happy anytime I listen too it. I want more of Rose Murphy!
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:23 am
by texas-eddie
So I bought the Vintage CD yesterday. While there are some great tracks on it, with some quite danceable, the sound quality is quite low. Lots of white noise, and many of it inconsistent; it comes and goes making it very hard to EQ out. The later tracks are better (the ones with the male orchestra), but the ones I'd want to dance to aren't as clean sound-wise as I'd like.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:24 pm
by Eyeball
Since this is likely the only thread anyone might read some the following, I would like to mention some of the female Jazz players of the 30s and 40s.
Mary Lou Williams - piano and arranger and composer.
Una Mae Carlisle - piano, vocalist and composer
Margie Hyams - vibes with Woody Herman
Billie Rogers - trumpet with Woody Herman and then her own band.
All the ISoR women
Countess Margaret Johnson - piano
Dorothy Donegan - piano
And lots more women turn up as the 40s and the war progresses
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:27 pm
by Haydn
These two Ina Ray Hutton clips are good too:
Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears - Doin' The Suzi Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfeQ58Sx1gI
Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears - Hutton Club Shake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJHRI0ZqKEE
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:26 am
by sonofvu
This is an extremely tight and well rehearsed band. I like the way the guitarist keeps time by bobbing her head.
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:55 am
by Haydn
sonofvu wrote:This is an extremely tight and well rehearsed band. I like the way the guitarist keeps time by bobbing her head.
Yeah, I love that. Even seated, the musicians seem to have some sort of rhythm, both individually and collectively. I wonder how the sound was recorded for this.